We've known for a while that Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfeld was developing a movie and graphic novel with Grant Morrison called Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens. There have also been whispers that he's developing something based on a 1960s comic at Warners, and Vulture now believe they've discovered what it is: Sonnenfeld is at work on The Metal Men.

The Metal Men are robots with sophisticated A.I. (later retconned to give them the imprinted personalities of real people), created by genius Will Magnus, who was a supervillain for a while and then wasn't again. His creations included stretchy team-leader Gold; super-strong Iron; dim Lead, who was good if you needed a shield; loose-cannon shapeshifter Mercury; insecure Tin; and female Platinum, who thought she was a real girl and was in love with Dr Will.

Later there was another female team-member called Nameless, and there was also mysterious investigator Steel, who looked like Illya Kuryakin and had a thing going with Sapphire. Oh, wait, that was something else.

This somewhat obscure seam of the DC universe was first mined in 1962, when The Metal Men first showed up as a last-minute space filler in DC Showcase. They were popular enough that they got their own series in 1963, which continued, with the odd hiatus here and there, until 1978, when DC cancelled practically everything. The robot hero team sat out the 1980s entirely, but sporadically reappeared in the '90s and '00s, most recently in a Justice League storyline.

Sonnenfeld has said it's too early to talk about the film yet, so his plans remain mysterious. Will cult wunderkind Morrison be helping him with this one too? All will no doubt be revealed in the fullness of time...

I've read a few Metal Men comics... they're rubbish. Has the person who gets the royalties snuffed it. The rights going cheap are the only reason I can see for this lame set of characters being used for a movie. More